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What a great number and variety of high quality effects for the Roland digital recorders. I has begun broadening my horizons & skills on the VS2480, and having the additional VS8F-2 Effects Expansion board sure does make life easier. Now I am able to dedicate effects to vocal tracks/banks, Guitar muli-effects, and still be able to use them "realtime" while exploiting the Mastering Took Kit in the Mastering Room. I am very impressed with the quality of these effects. The really make a difference in getting that polished and professional sounding end product. A must have for those who are serious on their Roland digital recorders, and that don't want to have to bounce/copy tracks just to free up the effect for another track. If you use a lot of effects and the mastering tool, you just can't go wrong adding another one of these.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
OK, Cant say enough for this unit. I have gone from the 1680 to the 1880 and then the 2480. Now I have a personus mixer to studio one or capture and I think back to the Roland. Wish it was that easy. The only thing this unit does not have is it's ability to off load data to other software through todays tech. you have to off load through a cd or through an external drive which is not compatible with most software today. Wish roland had given us users a way to offload wave files to the latest tech to date with ease. Yes convert to wave file is fine, but never kept us up to speed. Wish Roland had gone the next step for this unit. Still today this is an awesome recorder and is fine to use for live recording and anything within it"s own domain. Still to this day is a great unit for the $$
I really wanted to like this system. I actually bought two of them with all the bells and whistles for less than $1000!! I have spent a year learning the in, outs, quirks, work-arounds, etc. There are a ton of them for sale and they look capable. Alas, the 2480 promises so much and delivers too little. Problem areas : unbelievably slow start up, changing projects, loading effects, etc. Short throw faders. Problems with preamp distortion on about 1/2 the models. The back-up SCSI system is basically non-functional unless continual attempts are made over days/weeks (sometimes never works), weird automation issues (sometimes they work and sometimes they don't), lots of expensive add-ons needed like VS8F-3 that are weirdly proprietary and the whole RDAC situation (hard to understand the thinking on that one). All in one is pretty misleading. You can spend thousands trying to get things done. Even the ability to use a monitor is poorly implemented because it does not follow the actual recording in real time. Once the recording stops, the monitor puts up the information but without enough definition to be truly useful. The "2" cards have a lot of effects but they are the equivalent to 20 year old Alesis midiverb outboard gear. Last but not least, the compression scheme is ridiculous. VS8F3 cards have much better sound but they are extremely limited. It is slow going because you have to bounce tracks all over the place to use an effect on more than 1 track at a time. It is like you have to record everything 4 or 5 times to get things done. Good effects but really time wasters. How does it sound?: "Dull and uninspiring". However, If you go thru the digital inputs and outputs, use top shelf converters, great mics and quality outboard gear you bypass 90% of the system and produce some pretty nice sounding music- so why bother with using 10% of a system. This is how I ended up using the unit. But I realizes that my production was way down. Is there anything good about it?: There are a lot of them for sale and they are pretty cheap, although not as cheap as an inexpensive computer and preamp/converter. If you are into trying to figure out non-intuitive, arcane technology that will fill hours and hours of your time - this is probably the machine for you. You will spend lots of time reading the insufferable manuals, writing to and reading websites (VS Planet - nice guys trying to justify this terrible product) trying to figure out why it is not doing what it is supposed to do. They do seem to be well built. Both of my machines are working just fine - probably just like new. You may ask, if they are built so well, why am I saying bad things about them? I am complaining because they are poorly realized. They eat up time and sound bad. They give you a headache every time you turn it on and try to create music. You spend more time making them do things then you get to actually enjoy creating. In the year that I have been using this platform I have done 1/2 the music that I did before getting it. I think people who like them have invested so much of their lives into making them work that they don't want to admit it is a bad platform. They have gone on too long to turn back. Go ahead and buy one. It will keep you very busy.Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Needed a standalone solution for music recording. The 1st thing I ever recorded with this d one the day I received it this was really great. It was a vocal over an acoustic guitar and sounds fantastic. However, as I got more into drums and other instruments my experiences became more difficult. Specifically in dialing in quality sound with bass rhythms and drums. Struggled a long time thinking I had to just learn the methods with the unit properly. Speaking of methods and all that, this unit is amazing how much functionality has been built in to it. From an engineer's standpoint I am absolutely amazed by this product! The more I learned, the more the unit surprised and impressed me. I just think now that there is an issue with sounds quality in lower frequency spectrum in my own experiences or maybe just the warmth. Some critiquing in some of the recorded work I have had was over a guitar that had gone through the unit's(vsf2 card) effect, and I agreed. I realized that even after putting time& energy into a sound, somehow something is lost in the recordings and I tried again and again to correct. Comparing this the fact that using my other interfaces I can dial in and get a pleasing recording virtually immediately... I started searching out any finished product that features this unit. To this date, I actually haven't heard anything to the level of recording I would have wished for when I made the purchase of the vs2480. I do believe that for recording a vocal track this unit seems to be capable. Perhaps it's what the circuitry is tuned for??? Idk but I wish I could import/expert easier because I believe it somehow affords quality vocal with a bunch of headroom to deal with on the vocal side of things.Read full review
Verified purchase: No
This product although dated is still a leader in it's capabilities, capacities, ease of use and final finished product. I have produced many professional broadcast quality projects with this machine. Roland (aka Boss) made huge steps backwards in their new offerings. The ability to record 8 tracks at once and mix 16 (actually more if you read the manual)surpasses even the most modern machines. The ease of use of this digital recorder vs the hassle and expense of computer recording is unbelievable. Not to mention....NO LATENCY PROBLEMS. I would recommend this to anyone. I use this one as well as a VS2000cd and VS2480CD. Nothing comes close to these machines. I just wonder what Roland (aka Boss) was thinking when they came up with the current underachieving new models. If you want to record. Get one of these machines. Load it up full with the VS8F-2 FX cards and get the job done!!!!Read full review